Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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464. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the estimated cost in 2023 if 175 new recruit prison officers were recruited into the Irish Prison Service. [60399/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that the estimated full year cost of employing 175 new Recruit Prison Officers, as per the most recent PPC pay scales of 1 October 2022, would be:

These pay costs reflect salary and other allowances such as Operational Allowance (8% of annual salary).  They also reflect other premium payments and the allocation of up to 360 additional hours as provided for in the Proposal for Organisational Change.  Employers PRSI of 11% on total earnings is factored into the overall pay cost of the 175 posts.Please note that the rate of remuneration may be adjusted from time to time in line with Government pay policy.

As is the case with the recruitment of new staff members to an organisation, in addition to the above salary costings, there are a number of ancillary non pay costs associated with the recruitment of a single Recruit Prison Officer, such as: 

The recruitment of RPO’s by the IPS has been ongoing since 2017, and has regard to such factors as service needs and exit levels from the organisation. 

I can advise the Deputy that 133 RPO’s were recruited in 2021, and to date in 2022, 119 Recruit Prison Officers have been recruited. It is envisaged that a further 10 will be recruited before the end of 2022.

Furthermore I can confirm that the Irish Prison Service has been allocated additional funding in the 2023 Estimates for the recruitment of circa 100 additional staff. The Irish Prison Service has indicated that it intends to recruit up to 280 staff next year in total including replacement staff for retirements etc.  Arrangements for the recruitment of same are being progressed.